Port Chilkoot dock bid under budget

The lowest bid for the Port Chilkoot Dock and Letnikof Harbor renovation projects is $500,000 under budget, allowing the Haines Borough to include developments it had previously eliminated for cost-cutting purposes.

Seattle-based Pacific Pile & Marine said work on the projects will total $5.8 million, a half-million dollars less than the $6.3 million budget. The borough removed a mooring dolphin, dock lighting and electrical power to the moorage float from the Port Chilkoot Dock design plans in January to remain within the budget.

Public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said the borough received three very close bids, with the lowest and highest differing by only $350,000. Jimenez said Pacific Pile and Marine’s bid wasn’t surprisingly low, as PND Engineers had estimated the projects to cost about $6 million.

About $5.4 million in legislative grants and commercial passenger vessel tax funds will pay for the Port Chilkoot dock upgrades, while a little under $1 million in legislative grant money will pay for the Letnikof Harbor renovations, said manager Mark Earnest.

“The funding that we’ve been able to get through the state – through former Rep. Bill Thomas – without that funding support, the borough would not be able to replace that facility,” Earnest said.

Failing piles at the Port Chilkoot Dock and numerous structural deficiencies at the Letnikof float make the improvements a pressing project, Earnest said.

Construction on the Port Chilkoot Dock is slated to begin Aug. 16. Jimenez said cruise ships will need to anchor offshore and lighter into the marina during construction, but that adjustment isn’t causing any problems with the cruise ship companies. “We’re in communication with them and it’s all good,” he said.

Letnikof improvements will begin Oct. 1 and end in the spring, Jimenez said.